Sue Finkam on what makes Carmel work
Carmel Mayor Sue Finkam is a leading voice on livability, public safety, and creative and thoughtful local growth. A self-described “Hoosier by choice,” Finkam brings a practical and optimistic perspective to questions of civic beauty, belonging, regional crime and the responsibilities shared by residents and local officials. In this interview, she discusses what makes Carmel distinctive, how the city plans for its future, and the qualities that keep a community strong. She spoke with American Habits editor Ray Nothstine.
Carmel is often held up as one of America’s best-run and most livable midsize cities. It appears on so many “best places” lists, often near or at the very top, which is a credit to a lot of people, I’m sure. When I read about Carmel or see it, I think, “I want to live there.” What does local government have to get right first if it wants to preserve that kind of quality of life?
Mayor Sue Finkam: First and foremost, we must listen to what our residents want, enjoy and appreciate about this community—both what they have valued in the past and what they want to see in the future.
We know public safety is at the top of that list. We conducted a survey in 2024, and having a safe community outpaced everything else, including our incredible school system. Schools, parks and a clean community all matter, and the three words people use most often to describe Carmel are safe, clean and beautiful.
To me, those are my marching orders every single day.
Carmel attracts new residents, businesses and development. But growth can also put pressure on the very qualities that made a place attractive in the first place. A lot of communities are wrestling with that right now. How do you welcome growth while making sure Carmel remains, in its essence, the same community people value?
Finkam: Our growth is going to slow down. It already has. We’re nearly built out when it comes to available green space, unlike some neighboring communities where growth is now happening more rapidly.
That gives us an opportunity to be very intentional and selective about what comes next. We can ask: How will this affect public safety, traffic management, cleanliness and the other things our residents value?
At the same time, we want to remain a welcoming community. People from all over the world come here to live and work, and we love that. We have residents from 90 different countries, and 110 languages are spoken here.
That’s a really interesting part of Carmel that a lot of people may not realize. It’s also part of what makes the community so desirable.
Related to that, Carmel has invested heavily in walkable districts, redevelopment, public spaces and the arts. How important is beauty, not just efficiency, to the life of a city?
For example, I was recently in Salt Lake City, and one thing that struck me is how clean it is everywhere. I don’t think I saw any trash. How much do cleanliness, public art and the overall look and feel of a place shape the way people experience their community?
Finkam: We believe the arts, landscaping and street design, even choices like pavers instead of cement, help make Carmel special. When people are surrounded by beautiful, well-cared-for places, they feel valued. And when people feel valued, they take pride in their community and want to care for it, too.
We also want people to feel they are part of something bigger than themselves. That can help combat loneliness and the sense that people do not belong.
From the standpoint of building a livable city, I think a sense of belonging is a metric that does not receive nearly enough attention.
Let’s say I moved to Carmel this year. My wife has looked at the city before and said, “This place is so cool.” What do you think we would come to love most about living in Carmel?
Finkam: I have a long laundry list, but all those things really add up to one thing. I’m going to date myself a little with this answer: The Commodores have a song called “Easy”—“Easy like Sunday morning.”
I know the song. I’m a laid-back person.
Finkam: [Laughs] Good. A lot of what makes our community special is that we try not to overcomplicate your life. We manage traffic with more than 160 roundabouts, so even when traffic is moving slowly, you generally aren’t sitting through long backups at stoplights.
We have an incredible park system that offers both active and passive recreation. We also try to make the places people walk through interesting and inviting, so they want to get out of the house, move around and see other people.
It’s that combination of things that adds up to something so special. Life here can feel a little easier.
I like that. I went to college at Ole Miss, and Oxford, Mississippi, has roundabouts everywhere now. People coming in from rural Mississippi do not always understand them. I imagine you occasionally get the same thing with visitors from rural Indiana. If you do not encounter roundabouts often, the rules aren’t always intuitive to everyone.
Finkam: Our residents educate everybody.
Carmel is a successful and very safe suburb, but communities like yours can still feel the effects of crime elsewhere in the region. Here in North Carolina, particularly around Charlotte, there is growing concern about repeat offenders committing crimes across city and county lines. How do you think about protecting Carmel residents while still working constructively with Indianapolis and other regional partners? Is that regional spillover something that stays on your radar?
Finkam: Public safety is something I think about every single day—all day long, frankly. We are seeing an increase in crimes involving people coming from Marion County. Most recently, we had a carjacking involving someone who had been arrested 38 times since 2020, including 28 times on felony charges. We have to pay attention to that data.
I recently led an effort to bring together mayors and police chiefs from across the region to evaluate the issue and determine how we can work together. We need both short and long-term actions—a real game plan for addressing it.
Public safety is a little like culture: If you do not pay attention to it, it can take on a life of its own. We have to be intentional about our investment and our collaboration because our residents deserve it.
I imagine it must be deeply frustrating. Of course, public safety must be pursued within the Constitution and the law. But when you see cases involving someone who has been arrested repeatedly—sometimes 10 times or more, including for violent offenses—it can be maddening.
How frustrating is it as a mayor to confront those cases, especially when many of the decisions that allowed someone back onto the street were made outside your city?
Finkam: It’s very frustrating, for sure. It’s also a complex system, and we are not going to solve it overnight. How well staffed, trained and prepared are the police? What is the philosophy of the prosecutors, and what laws are they working under? What role are activist judges playing in our communities? Are there judges whose decisions are making it harder to keep dangerous criminals off the streets? Are the jails overcrowded, and how well have they been funded?
Local governing bodies change, too. City council members come and go every four years, and that can change priorities. Then there is the need to partner with agencies like the ATF, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana. It is all connected.
But what we cannot do is say, “This is complicated, so we can’t tackle it.” We have to address it head-on. I’m really hopeful that what we have nicknamed the Regional Crime Summit—bringing together mayors and police chiefs—will produce concrete steps we can take, along with recommendations we can bring to our partners in the General Assembly in January.
I talked to your state comptroller, Elise Nieshalla, and asked her this question. She had a good answer, by the way, but there doesn’t seem to be one settled definition of what a Hoosier really is. Maybe there is for you, but as mayorof Carmel, what does that mean to you personally, and what do you love most about Indiana and the people who call it home? I would love to get at the essence of it: What is a Hoosier? What does it mean?
Finkam: I’m a Hoosier by choice. I grew up in Michigan and moved here when I was 22. To me, the essence of a Hoosier is someone who is pragmatic, proud, hardworking and wants the best for everyone.
There is no single settled definition within the walls of Indiana, either. But I think of the state’s agricultural roots, a willingness to fend for yourself and, at the same time, help others. I just love that. It aligns with who I am, with my values and, so to speak, with my political stripes as well.
I’m really proud to live here, and I’m grateful that I get to be one of the people helping lead this great state forward, even in some small way.
As America marks its 250th anniversary, I’ve been asking local leaders what self-government looks like close to home. What does Carmel teach us about the habits citizens and local officials need to keep a community strong? And, from your perspective, what makes someone a good citizen and neighbor in Carmel?
Finkam: Active engagement in both directions—that’s how I would summarize it.
A good local government must listen and respond to what residents want and need. One of the things that makes Carmel great is that we have highly educated, highly engaged residents. They bring solutions to the table, and they want to participate in the process of making the community better.
They want to make sure the next generation can thrive here just as they have. They also want to hold their leaders accountable, and I believe in holding our residents accountable, too. Everyone has a role to play in keeping a community strong.
It’s a partnership, and I think that partnership is what makes Carmel and other strong cities work so well.
